ZMCL’s English news channel will be technology driven: Subhash Chandra

MUMBAI: Zee Media Corporation Ltd’s(ZMCL) proposed English news channelwill be positioned as a technology-driven news channel, Essel Groupchairman Subhash Chandra has said.“We are about to launch an Englishnews channel. We were discussing thewhole technological engine we aregoing to use. I understood whattechnology my colleagues wanted tointroduce in the news space,” Chandrasaid while giving a valedictory speechat Exchange4Media conclave here.“I said why we don’t have a visionthat we are not going to be a newsorganisation but we are going to be atechnology company incidentallygiving news as a product. That is thepositioning we have decided last weekfor our English news channel,” headded.As reported earlier, ZMCL is planningto launch an English news channelwith an Indian point of view in thenext fiscal. The company is in talkswith CNN to launch an English-language global news channel. Thecompany had recently hired RohitGandhi as editor-in-chief of Englishnews broadcast and related content todrive the new channel.According to Chandra, social mediaplatforms like Twitter have made thetask of a news organisation easier asit gives insight into the kind of newsthat the consumers are demanding.“Because a news piece is given in 140letters on the social media, it spreadsand starts trending, it gives me anindication that this is the news I mustgo deep into. This is the news peoplewant to watch and want to know moredetails. Today, the technology hasenabled us to give the news in manymore ways and many differentpackages,” he stated.“News which I would put on my DNAnewspaper might be almost 5,000words in a large analytical format,but the same news I will break intopieces for TV, for online, mobile andso on so forth,” he added.Chandra’s Essel Group is moving intofactual entertainment or cognitiveentertainment, a space hitherto leftuntouched by Indian broadcasters.“Strategically, we are certainlymoving from Asia towards cognitiveentertainment in this country. Thereis nobody in Asia who is having contentcreation involving this space,” hesaid.“In terms of other technology anddistribution, there is so much to do,but I feel that this is, for the mediaand entertainment world, 2.0 (secondgeneration) in the happening, withthe digital world, the content beingcreated and the mindset beingchanged,” he added.He also said that start-ups areneither a bubble nor a complete gamechanger; however, they will help inexpanding the market.Giving his own example, he said thatwhen he launched Zee TV 23 yearsago, the film industry feared that itwould spell doom for them, but it notonly laid the ground for establishmentof a TV broadcast industry but alsohelped in the growth of the filmindustry.“I remember that when I started(satellite) television in this country,the film industry felt we would killthe film and theatre industry, but thereverse happened. We promoted films,we partnered with the movie industry,and both grew. Same way thetechnological start-up companies willcontinue,” he said.He also said that linear televisionwould survive notwithstanding thetechnological innovations.“People say that linear television asit exists today will be dead 10 yearsfrom now. At Zee, we do taketechnology seriously. We are ahead atleast in Asia in terms of adoptingtechnology. But I feel this (linear TV)will survive along with new media. Itwill give more opportunities tomarketers and expand the market as awhole,” he noted.http://www.televisionpost.com/television...h-chandra/